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Spot in 1A WLE scar

Forums General Melanoma Community Spot in 1A WLE scar

  • Post
    Marksa2570
    Participant

      Hello… I had a WLE for a thin melanoma over 2 years ago.    About a year ago I found a raised pimple’y thing at the bottom of the scar.  It didn’t concern me too much and it went away.   

      Last night I found a flat spot that is larger and darker than most of my freckles in the center of the WLE scar.    It’s irregular  in size and color – mostly darkish red with some brown.  

      Today is Sat and my derm can see me Tuesday.   She is two hours away and I am going to miss an important meeting at work but my gut is saying just go.    Any reason to think I should buy some time to watch it for a bit or just go see her? 

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        Janner
        Participant

          It could easily be a freckle.  I have freckles that have shown up in my WLE scars.  However, they are in areas where I already have a lot of freckles.  We didn't even biopsy mine (and this was over a decade ago).  If you cut thru a freckle, it's not uncommon for it to grow back thru scar tissue.  As for what to do about yours, it's totally up to you and your comfort zone.  I probably would take my time and take a couple of photographs and watch it for a month or so.  But I'm not an alarmist.  YOU have to do what makes YOU comfortable.  And if that is going to the derm now, then that's what you do.  Good luck!

          Tset
          Participant

            Back in April of 2018 I had my 6 month skin check. I have freckles on my chest area where I had a Melanoma in Situ removed 3 and a half years prior. I had what looked like a freckle in the middle of my scar and a small part of it was on the regular skin. My derm wanted to remove it because it was on the scar and did get just a little darker from the last time she checked months ago. She really didn’t think it was anything because it looked like a light tan freckle. Going back through pics the freckle wasn’t there after my WLE surgery but it was there in my 1 year post WLE photo so it popped up sometime within that first year. The path report came back and said it was a recurrent Melanoma in Situ. Talk about a shock. I couldn’t understand how a melanoma in Situ could come back and that it came back again as Melanoma in Situ. Went to Duke where they have a melanoma specialist and they re did path reports on the original MIS, the WLE as well as the new MIS that was on my scar. They wanted to make sure there hadn’t been a mistake on the previous pathology as it’s not common to return and more rare for it to return as another Melanoma In Situ. There report matched up and they explained it as some cells were left behind in my WLE. They said melanoma will sometimes have tentacles that extend beyond the mole and excision didn’t get all of it so it grew back. Mine is the Lentigo Maligna subtype and I guess that sometimes happens with that. I ended up getting MOHS surgery where he removed the entire scar plus quite a bit beyond that and made sure it was all gone before the sewed me up. Sent the scar etc to the lab for path and it came back clean so nothing invasive or lurking beneath thank god. If it were me I would err on the side of caution and just have them remove it and send it off to make sure it’s nothing. If I get any type of freckle or mole on this scar again better believe I’ll have them remove it to give me peace of mind. Hoping you get some answers when you see your derm. Best Wishes, Tenisa

              Janner
              Participant

                Just as a side note, lentiga maligna has the highest local recurrence rate of any type of melanoma.  I've seen it written between 20 and 50% may have a local recurrence (depending upon which paper you read).  Most times it recurs as Lentigo Maligna, but occasionally it will recur as Lentigo Maligna Melanoma.  (It's call Lentgo Maligna if it's in situ, Lentigo Maligna Melanoma if it's invasive).  Most melanomas are superficial spreading, but if the original poster had lentigo maligna melanoma, then a doc visit is warranted.

              Zelda_Scotland
              Participant

                I hope you went to the appointment. I had a spot that started out looking like a freckle appear 2/3 months after my WLE, right in the middle of my scar. Nobody was concerned until my next check up by which time it was a 0.5mm Malignant Melanoma. It’s always worth getting checked no matter how important the meeting is. 

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